Judge Orders Savage To Be Electrocuted

February 2, 1985|By Diane M. Goldie, Staff Writer

Contending the facts of the case ``cry out`` for the death penalty, Broward Circuit Judge Stanton Kaplan on Friday ordered Edward Carroll Savage electrocuted for engineering the death of his son`s former mother-in-law.

It was the first time in his eight years on the bench that Kaplan rejected a jury`s recommendation.

But after scouring court records, Kaplan said: ``This court cannot accept that recommendation as being reasonable under the circumstances of this case.

``Edward Carroll Savage is the type of person who not only flaunts the law, he takes advantage of people to gain control of them. He knows how to get to people -- if not with money, then with threats and violence.``

As he did during most of his two-week trial last month, Savage, 54, sat expressionless as Kaplan read the nine-page decision. He occasionally shook his head as the judge detailed the torment Savage inflicted on Ruth Hamilton and her family before arranging her death in April 1982.

``I had absolutely nothing to do with any of this,`` Savage insisted. ``I didn`t want nobody to get killed or hurt . . . There`s no way I`d have anything to do with something like that.``

In arguing for a life sentence, defense attorney Stuart Mishkin told Kaplan: ``I know they were tormented and I sympathize and feel bad for them, but with his health condition there`s no doubt he`s going to sit in jail for the rest of his life.``

After the sentencing, Hamilton`s husband, Robert, said; ``I think (Savage) had it coming. He asked for it. He had plenty of opportunity to back off. It won`t bring Ruth back, but it will keep him off the street.``

Willard Anderson, who was given immunity in exchange for his testimony, said he paid Billy Dean Davis, his third cousin, $140 to kill Hamilton at Savage`s request. Davis, 18, was sentenced to life in prison in 1983 for shooting Hamilton once in the head as she sat in the living room of her Miami Gardens Road home.

The victim`s daughter, Connie, married Savage`s son Steve in 1974. The couple divorced in 1977 and two years later she became invovled with Edward Savage.

When the relationship soured, Hamilton ordered Savage to keep away from her daughter. Savage retaliated by repeatedly firebombing Hamilton`s home and threatening her life.

Savage did not testify in his behalf; Mishkin maintained that his client told Anderson only to scare Hamilton.

Savage avoided trial several times because of his heart condition and eluded authorities for 15 months when, in June 1983, a former sheriff`s deputy looked the other way as he slipped out of his hospital bed and into a waiting Cadillac.